Busy day along IH-35

It started out as a rather unremarkable Saturday. Promised spring-like temperatures led me to join Henry's paddling group on a short trip along the San Marcos River, but these boat trips are the rule, not the exception, most weekends. We started near Pecan Park and I took the nice shot at the right, of tree and water, from the bridge where I was doing what I always do to start these trips: waiting for the shuttle to the take-out point to return.

Those also serve who only wait for shuttles to return by guarding the boats and gear, some of which is pictured on the left at the low, narrow bridge. The somewhat busy roadway is so narrow here, in fact, that traffic each way has a stop sign to manage it—only one car can get across the bridge at a time.

Henry and I each kayaked today, since it was too windy for the canoe. In fact, there were a couple of stretches during the trip (mercifully they were short stretches) where I wasn't sure I could keep moving in the right direction, even with the current's help.

So how do we transport our boats to the river? There are several different options but yesterday we went with this one, shown on the right. Two kayaks in the minivan, with me sitting in the left-hand back seat. The picture was taken from that seat, looking out the usual passenger seat window.

[You can read about an unfamiliar sight along the river on—strange as it may seem—my London blog.]

The paddle was so short, we had most of the afternoon ahead of us when it finished. So we gave Sally a call in Austin. She had been unable to join us for the river trip because she had two indoor soccer games on her schedule for the day. San Marcos' proximity to Austin meant that we could scoot up there easily and watch her play. Since we visited a while with the paddling group after the take-out, we were in something of a hurry to reach the indoor soccer arena in Round Rock, north of Austin, and I only had time to take an iconic Austin photo out the car window.

[Actually, to be a truly iconic Austin shot, the cars wouldn't be moving but would be stopped in one of the city's typical, numerous and infuriating traffic jams. But the jam had come earlier than this far downtown this time.]

We had snacked rather heavily at our late lunch break on the river, and Sally didn't want to eat much between games, so instead of taking her to dinner she took us to Fry's electronics wonderland. She needed a new tv cable, we needed a new printer cable, and Henry had been making new computer noises a lot lately. (And they even have a little cafe in the store—necessary to keep the companions of serious shoppers like H happy—so we got a smoothie for a light dinner.)

To make a long story short, their prices are really good, and we don't have one of these stores in San Antonio, so we walked out of there (a little over an hour later) with two new cables and one new computer! The new machine is supposed to be Henry's but I hope I'll get to play with it occasionally.

Back to the soccer place in time to watch a really exciting game (the first one was just a scrimmage due to lack of showing up by the other team). It was really neat to get an unexpected visit with the little girl, and watching her play always brings back pleasant memories of many happy hours when she was younger and our schedules were totally framed by games and practices. I don't miss the hecticness of those days, but it was nice when family togetherness was so much easier (when kids weren't in Austin and Bolivia, that is!). Having adult children is a real treat when you can have little surprises with them like the way this day worked out.